Uighur
separatists from China are likely to be mistreated if they are returned
to Beijing's custody from the Guantanamo Bay naval base as the US administration
is reportedly considering, says
the group Human Rights Watch (HRW).

More
than a dozen members of the Muslim ethnic group are being held at the
base in Cuba with other detainees suspected of belonging to the al-Qaeda
terrorist group and the Taliban, former rulers of Afghanistan.

New
York-based HRW says the Uighurs, who were captured by US forces in Afghanistan
two years ago, could face torture and execution if repatriated to Beijing,
which has gone to great lengths to repress Uighur nationalism in the
far-western province of Xinjiang, where most of the Turkic group have
lived for centuries.

"The
United States should not even contemplate returning Uighurs to China,"
said Brad Adams, director of HRW's Asia division, in a statement. "Any
assurances from China that it will not mistreat returnees would not
be worth the paper they are written on."

"It
would be virtually impossible for the US to prevent mistreatment of
these detainees once they fall into China's abysmal prison system,"
he added.

Some
660 al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects from more than two dozen countries
are being held as "illegal combatants" at Guantanamo. Most
were seized during the brief, US-led military campaign in Afghanistan
two years ago.

Instead
of giving them "prisoner of war" status, the administration
considers them "illegal combatants," meaning they lack some
of the basic rights and protections that are accorded POWs under the
Geneva Conventions and virtually all of the rights guaranteed by the
US Constitution.

Pentagon
chief Donald Rumsfeld has declared that, like POWs, the detainees can
be held so long as the war against terrorism continues.

Their
status and treatment have generated much controversy, both in the United
States and overseas, where a number of governments, human rights groups
and prominent jurists have criticized Washington for not giving them
POW status or ensuring basic due process rights.

This
week one of Britain's most prominent jurists, High Court Judge Steyn,
called the circumstances of their detention "monstrous," and declared
that Washington's refusal to permit the prisoners to challenge their
detention in a court amounted to a "breach of the minimum standards
of customary international law."

The
US Supreme Court decided earlier this month to hear a case that challenges
the Pentagon's claim that the detainees are not entitled to basic constitutional
rights because the base where they are being held cannot be considered
US territory. But the case will not be argued before early next year,
and a decision is not expected until the spring.

Some
88 detainees, mostly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, have been quietly
returned to their home countries. While Washington agreed that 84 of
them could be freed as harmless, four others were repatriated to Saudi
Arabia, where they remain in detention, reported the Associated Press
this week.

The
AP quoted officials as saying that dozens more could be repatriated
but only on condition that their governments subject them to interrogation
and continued detention. Among that group are the Uighurs, who were
apparently training in Afghanistan with the intention of returning to
Xinjiang to fight for independence from China when they were captured.

Beijing
has relentlessly repressed the cause of Uighur separatism, which has
flared in occasional violence and bombings several times over the past
decade.

Suspected
separatists have been systematically tortured and otherwise mistreated,
while some have been executed after trials that also do not meet minimum
international due-process standards, according to HRW and Amnesty International,
as well as US State Department human rights reports.

Under
the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which Washington ratified
in 1994, governments are forbidden to return individuals to countries
if there are substantial grounds to believe they might be subject to
such treatment.

The
Bush administration has acknowledged this obligation, but its practice
during the war on terrorism raises serious questions about whether it
would abide by it, say rights activists.

A
number of US and foreign newspapers have reported over the past year
that suspected terrorists seized by or transferred to US custody have
in some cases been "rendered" to home governments for interrogation.

In
most cases, the intelligence or security services of those governments
are known to use torture or other forms of mistreatment against detainees.

The
most notorious case came to light earlier this month when a Syrian-born
Canadian citizen, Maher
Arar, disclosed that he had been detained at a New York airport
in September 2002 while in transit from the Middle East to Canada.

After
a brief interrogation he was flown to Washington, from there to Jordan
and thence to Syria, where he was beaten and confined to a small cell
for 10 months.

Last
week, US officials admitted Arar had been detained and deported, but
insisted that they had received assurances in advance from Damascus
that he would not be mistreated. Arar has already filed suit against
the governments of Jordan and Syria, and his lawyers said they have
plans to sue the United States as well.

"As
with Arar and Syria, it is a fallacy to believe that a state that systematically
practices torture will magically transform itself simply because it
has offered diplomatic assurances," said Adams.

"It
would be extremely reckless to accept written assurances from China
in these cases. If these men are returned and anything happens to them,
it will be the responsibility of the United States."

HRW
called for the administration to immediately institute a moratorium
on returning detainees to countries that routinely practice torture
until it has completed a broader review of what has happened to such
individuals in the past.

Jim
Lobe, works as Inter Press Service's
correspondent in the Washington, D.C., bureau. He has followed the ups
and downs of neo-conservatives since well before their rise in the aftermath
of the September 11, 2001 attacks.